436 General History oj Europe out to Versailles to ask bread of the king, in whom they had great confidence personally, however suspicious they might be of his friends and advisers. Lafayette marched after the mob with the national guard to keep order, but did not prevent some of the rabble from invading the king's palace the next morning and nearly murdering the queen, who had become very unpopular. The mob declared that the king must accompany them to Paris, and he was obliged to consent. So they gayly escorted the "baker and the baker's wife and the baker's boy," as they jocularly termed the king and queen and the little dauphin, to the Palace of the Tuileries, where the king took up his residence, practically a prisoner, as it proved. The National Assembly soon fol- lowed him and resumed its sittings in a riding school near the Tuileries. This transfer of the king and the Assembly to the capital was the first great misfortune of the Revolution. At a serious crisis the government was placed at the mercy of the leaders of the dis- orderly elements of Paris. 758. Confiscation of Church Property. As we have seen, the Church in France was very rich and retained many of its medieval privileges. Its higher officials, the bishops and abbots, received very large revenues, and often a single prelate held a number of rich benefices, the duties of which he neglected. The parish priests, on the other hand, who really performed the mani- fold and important functions of the Church, were scarcely able to live on their incomes. This unjust apportionment of the vast Louis XVI
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